


baby, you'll be alright as long as i'm not

by queervroche



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-17
Updated: 2013-09-17
Packaged: 2017-12-26 20:32:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/969996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queervroche/pseuds/queervroche
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's like the answering machine never stops.</p>
            </blockquote>





	baby, you'll be alright as long as i'm not

**Author's Note:**

> written for @/the_speed_force on instagram.  
> HOPE IT BREAKS YOUR HEART.
> 
> title from Pierce The Veil's Sky Under the Sea.
> 
> and i definitely don't own young justice so congrats to dc comics for landing that one

It's like the answering machine never stops. 

 

_"Artemis, it's M'gann, please answer my calls. We're_ _**worried** _ _about you; it's been weeks. Please, just call me ba--"_

_  
_Artemis squeezes her knees closer to her chest, buries her face in her sleeves, shame burning it's way through her skin.

 

_"Uh, hey, Artemis. It's, uh, it's Conner. We're all pretty worried about you. You should--you should just call me--or any of us, really--uh, you should just call us back. We--"_

_  
_If she had the strength, she would rise from her position, curled up in the corner of the room, and unplug the damn phone. But she really doesn't have the strength for anything anymore.

 

_"Hey, it's Barry. Listen, the family and I, we wanna see you. We wanna make sure you're okay. We're all struggling here, Artemis. Just--just let us help you through it."_

_  
_The Allens' calls are among the worst. Artemis tries to remember that they're family, that they're hurting the same as she is, but she just _can't._  The past few weeks have been a haze of nothingness. It's become impossible for Artemis to discern when one day ends and the next begins. She can't remember the last time she's eaten, the last time she's spoken to anyone. She had tried, after the first few days, to move. To just do  _something,_ anything. She had ended up in a heap on the stairwell, wheezing and choking back sobs. After that, nothing seemed worth the trouble. 

 

_"Artemis, answer the goddamn phone. You can't just ice me out. Screw this, screw everyone else--this is_ _**me**. He was my best friend, Artemis, you don't think it hurts? Every day --it's like I'm deaf, because he's not laughing in my ear or telling stupid jokes, and fuck, Artemis, I can't do this without you--"_

_  
_Dick's voice chokes off with a sob, the voicemail running out of time a mere second later. It's enough to send a new wave of pain up Artemis's spine, a sob tearing it's way out of her throat.

It hurts. Everything  _hurts._   _  
_

And what makes it worse, what Artemis just can't wrap her head around, what she just  _can't get over,_  is that they quit. They quit the life; she hung up her arrows and he put his goggles away. They went fucking domestic, with an apartment and a grocery list and his socks all over the floor, so  _why?_  

She hears the front door handle rattle a moment before it turns and she's up in an instant, fists outstretched, although she knows she's in no state to defend herself. 

Dick stands in the doorway, his shoulders hunched as his lockpicking kit falls from his hand to the ground. Moving the fastest she's moved in weeks, she stumbles straight into his arms, sobs racking through her body before she can staunch them. 

They stand there for what seems like hours, until their tears run together, until they fall to the floor and Artemis is apologizing over and over and Dick is weeping that he should have seen it coming and the night stretches on, unending and unrelenting in its darkness. 

Artemis realizes that this is what pain feels like. It's not a bullet in the shoulder or six stitches in her side. Pain is love and loss and lonliness all rolled into one.

 

The answering machine doesn't beep for a long, long while.  

 

 


End file.
